RAW: The FujiFilm X100s and Adobe Lightroom 4

In the last few months I have been looking for an alternative camera to my Nikon D700 DSLR and iPhone for several reasons. Often, I do not want to lug around multiple lenses or it is practically challenging to board a flight with too many kilograms of gear. I have also wanted another option for street photography than a bulky DSLR. The FujiFilm X100s seemed like it was going to be the answer (as a Leica M9 is completely out of my price range).

I snapped my first shots with this new camera (purchased yesterday) of students for the school website and tried to upload the .RAF RAW files to Lightroom with no success. The file type appeared not to be supported even though the earlier FujiFilm X100 has been available for years. Adobe Lightroom 4.3 is an essential part of my post-shooting workflow but unfortunately, does not handle the FujiFilm .RAF RAW file. This would have been a deal-breaker if I had known before I purchased the camera. I usually convert the Nikon proprietary .NEF file type to DNGon import and naively assumed this would continue to be my workflow with the new FujiFilm camera.

Feeling like a fool I did some research and discovered plenty of frustrated FujiFilm and Lightroom users posting at forums about this issue. I learnt plenty about the X-Trans sensor in my new camera and possible RAW processing options like Capture One.

UPDATE: ADOBE LIGHTROOM 4.4 (DOWNLOAD HERE) HAS BEEN RELEASED WITH IMPROVED ALGORITHMS FOR FUJIFILM RAW FILES. (3RD April 2013).

I do need some quality time with my new camera and hopefully, in the next few days, I can give it a workout. I did read the manual last night and set the camera to aperture priority for a few shots today. Here is my first snap with the aperture wide open at f/2. The bokeh is pleasing.

Pretty much any new camera will have limited raw support by software upon release. Since there are so many cameras being released all the time, the likes of Adobe and such usually update their programs once in a while to include support for several new cameras at once instead of releasing a compatibility update for every camera that gets released with a new raw algorithm. we’re lucky the LR4.4 RC is available already, otherwise we might have been forced to resort to the software that was included with the camera, I suppose.

But yeah on the other hand, I seem to read everywhere how people started relying on the jpgs with the x100 already and I’m really liking the results so far myself…. maybe my workflow will change somewhat with the fuji

Thank you for the article, Darcy. I’m thinking also of a DSLR or equivalent but would like to take decent 1080 video with that film look. Would you mind sharing your your thoughts on how well the D7000 and the Fiuji x100 are in taking HD video as well.
Thank you for the great articles.

EYEEM

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